Applying for Free Childcare For Working Parents for NEXT tax year

We are looking to apply for the code for the Free Childcare For Working Parents for the term starting 1 April 2025, as for the 2025/26 tax year mine and my husband’s adjusted earnings will both be under £100k. We are not eligible for 2024/25. The application form asks if our “current year” adjusted income is less than £100k, but it isn’t; but it will be from April 2025 when we are looking for the code for. Can anyone offer any guidance on how to apply please? The window closes on 31 March 2025 for codes from 1 April 2025.

Hi,
Please contact the Childcare Service team for advice.
Childcare Service helpline
Thank you.

Hi there, @Nicola Sellick - Did you ever get a response to this from the Childcare team? I'm currently in the same predicament! Thank you.

I have the exact same issue. 2 representatives from Childcare team said it's fine and I can just apply from 2nd week of March onwards(closer to April) and will be accepted since they will take into account next tax year's estimated income e.g if things changed. But I called again today and was told that this is not the case and will need to apply after April 6th, hence losing the benefit for term starting April and can reapply for September term  @Nicola Sellick did u get same response?

I spoke with someone today and they (confidently!) told me that because the tax year ends on 5 April which is after the start of the Summer term, we can’t apply for a code until 6 April for the Autumn term which starts 1 September. This means we’re going to lose out on 5 months’ of funding which is just annoying. He suggested I made a complaint via the website. I’m going to apply again now, wait to get the letter confirming we don’t qualify, then contact the Ombudsman. Be interested to hear if anyone is successful!

Same here I will contact the HMCTS with a complaint as I am not sure why there is this weird loophole where we don't benefit from childcare for something that happened in past tax year. It means we lose the benefit from April to September which is quite a few months even though we are eligible

From doing some more reading of the T&Cs, I think the person I spoke with today is correct. This is from the T&Cs: “ You will be able to take up your free hours from the term after you meet all the eligibility criteria for the entitlement you are applying for. These terms begin on 1 January, 1 April and 1 September.” If you become eligible from 6 April (i.e. 2025/26 income below £100k) then you can claim from 1 Sep term start date. Seems unfair and for the sake of 5 days we’re missing out on £2k of funding. Tax legislation allows for other items to be treated as co-terminus with the fiscal year (partnership and self-employment profits running to 31 March for example) so not sure why the rules are different here, apart from the obvious cost-saving exercise! I guess the benefit will be if you’re back in the position of earning over £100k in a later tax year then you’ll benefit for the term starting 1 April that rolls into that particular tax year.

That is exactly the issue we’re facing—just for the sake of five days, we end up missing out on a significant amount of funding. It really does feel like an arbitrary cut-off rather than a fair reflection of eligibility. Regarding your last point, is there any confirmation that if someone qualifies for the 30 hours from September, they would also receive the 15 hours they were eligible for from April to September, effectively backdating the entitlement? For example, if someone qualifies for the 30 hours from September but was also eligible for 15 hours in the previous term, would those hours be applied retrospectively? I haven’t been able to find any clear guidance on this and would appreciate any insights!